Myanmar

Mon refugees continue to flee Myanmar to Thailand

Published

Friday, November 29, 2019 09:18

PHOTO: Piyarat Chongchaoren

Myanmar’s ethnic Mon civilians continued pouring across the border into Thailand yesterday, fleeing from the fighting between Burmese troops and rebels on the border near the western province of Kanchanaburi.

The fighting began on Wednesday morning in Myanmar’s Bo Yeepun village, about 2km from the Three Pagodas border pass in Sangkhla Buri district. More than 700 people have fled so far. The fighting died down Wednesday afternoon and all was quiet overnight, according to birder officials. But civilians continued streaming across the border yesterday.

The Bangkok Post reports that there were 447 Mon civilian refugees sheltering at Wat Tao Than in Sangkhla Buri, visited by Kanchanaburi’s governor, together with the commander of the 9th Infantry Division. They were led by Red Cross officials to distribute rice and other food

Another 117 Burmese said they wouldn’t stay at temporary shelters, worried about their belongings and wanting to get back home.

The fighting occurred after Burmese troops claimed that two houses near the Bo Yeepun stronghold were encroaching on government territory. The Three Pagodas border pass has been closed since the fighting erupted and authorities are preventing Thais from crossing over. Shops around the border have been also been closed since Wednesday.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post

Mon refugees continue to flee Myanmar to Thailand | News by Thaiger

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Jack Burton

Jack Burton is an American writer, broadcaster, linguist and journalist who has lived in Asia since 1987. A native of the state of Georgia, he attended the The University of Georgia's Henry Grady School of Journalism, which hands out journalism's prestigious Peabody Awards. His works have appeared in The China Post, The South China Morning Post, The International Herald Tribune and many magazines throughout Asia and the world. He is fluent in Mandarin and has appeared on television and radio for decades in Taiwan, Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau.

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